"F—k Oklahoma City because I ain't never been there" - GP refuses to get his jersey retired by the Thunder

“F—k Oklahoma City because I ain’t never been there” – GP refuses to get his jersey retired by the Thunder originally appeared on Basketball Network.

Hall of Famer Gary Payton still hopes his jersey number will be retired one day. For GP, the issue is not whether he deserves it or not; it’s where he wants it to happen.

The Glove played his 13 NBA seasons with the Seattle SuperSonics, and he was one-half of the “Sonic Boom” duo, which propelled the team to success during the 90s. However, with the Sonics now being the OKC Thunder, Payton doesn’t want to get his number retired in Oklahoma City.

“It ain’t no better than the Seattle fans. I don’t give a f–k about what nobody say. That’s why I tell them, them motherfu–ers be talking about retired jersey in Oklahoma City, f–k Oklahoma City because I ain’t never been there,” said Payton during his recent appearance on the “Adam Ray’s 420 Show”.

OKC stole the Sonics from Seattle

Payton last played as a member of the Miami Heat, and his last year in the league was 2006-07. The season after that turned out to be the Sonics’ last in Seattle. On July 2, 2008, they announced their relocation to Oklahoma City.

However, while teams like the L.A. Lakers, Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, and Brooklyn Nets retained their team names after relocating to a new NBA city, the SuperSonics disappeared from the NBA map as the team was renamed the Thunder, in reference to the frequent storms that hit the city and in honor of the U.S. Army’s 45th infantry division Thunderbirds, which is based in OKC.

Although Thunder’s owners say that their inability to land a new arena deal with the city of Seattle was the reason for their departure, their chairman, Clay Bennett, hails from Oklahoma City. That’s why many Sonics fans, and former players, too, feel that their NBA team was “stolen” from them and rebranded. That feeling reverberated when Payton explained why he doesn’t want his jersey to be retired in OKC.

“Let’s make it real,” added GP. “Me and Shawn never played in front of Oklahoma City. We didn’t never play in front of their fans. So why should we give them the pleasure of what we started in Seattle to retire our jersey? So our fans should be having that pleasure.”

Only one jersey is hanging over the PayCom Center

While Payton and others don’t want a jersey retirement in OKC, the feeling is mutual. The Thunder have always treated themselves as a separate entity from the Sonics. When they won the 2025 NBA championship, they referred to it as the first championship in franchise history, even if Seattle won in 1979.

Since moving to OKC, the only jersey the Thunder have retired is Nick Collison’s No.4. It’s hanging over the PayCom Center despite the Sonics previously retiring the numbers of Gus Williams, Nate McMillan, Lenny Wilkens, Spencer Haywood, Fred Brown, and Jack Sikma. However, Payton remains positive that he, Kemp, and Detlef Schrempf will have their moment when Seattle gets its team back.

“When the Sonics come back, and mostly we gonna be a part of that, we’re gonna retire Shawn and Detlef’s jerseys first, that’s what we want to do, so everybody will get a feel of what’s happening. We’re the three that did that ’90s stuff,” Gary continued.

It’s been long rumored that Seattle will get its team back in the next NBA expansion. That is not a guarantee, but given the expected rivalry between OKC and Seattle over the Sonics’ departure in ’08, it’s almost a lock.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 5, 2025, where it first appeared.

“F—k Oklahoma City because I ain’t never been there” – GP refuses to get his jersey retired by the Thunder

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